Techmeme has redesigned.  Drudge Report is now indisputably the web's ugliest news site  —  In the beginning, links on web pages were underlined, because that let us know they were links.  And it was good.  But all those underlined words started to afflict the eye, particularly on pages with many links.

Tim Cook responds to claims of factory worker mistreatment: “We care about every worker in our supply chain”  —  This morning, The New York Times published a lengthy report with details about the harsh conditions of working in the factories of an Apple parts supplier or Apple product manufacturer.

Twitter Now Able To Censor Tweets, If Required By Law, On A Country-By-Country Basis  —  Until now, Twitter's not had the ability to censor certain tweets or accounts, to prevent them from being seen — if legally required — by users in particular countries.

Setting the record straight about our privacy policy changes  —  A lot has been said about our new privacy policy.  Some have praised us for making our privacy policy easier to understand.  Others have asked questions, including members of Congress, and that's understandable too.

Dear Google: Crappy Results Like This Don't Give The Impression You Care About Search  —  The debate about what should — and shouldn't — show in a Google search result for “santorum” has been well-documented, at this point.  But I'd like to use this now famous search to illustrate something else …

Say Goodbye to the Menu Button  —  Before Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), all Android-powered devices included a dedicated Menu button.  As a developer, you could use the Menu button to display whatever options were relevant to the user, often using the activity's built-in options menu.

European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The ‘Masquerade’ Behind ACTA  —  This is interesting.  Kader Arif, the “rapporteur” for ACTA, has quit that role in disgust over the process behind getting the EU to sign onto ACTA.  A rapporteur is a person “appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue.”

Samsung 2011 Q4 earnings official: $42 billion in sales, $4.7 billion operating profit  —  It might not be making as much money as the competition in Cupertino, but that doesn't mean Samsung isn't raking in cash at an astonishing clip.  We reported earnings estimates a few weeks ago …

Hawaiian politician backs away from Web dossier law  —  A Web site attacking Hawaii Rep. Kym Pine that appears to have given birth to the H.B. 2288 dossier bill  —  A Hawaii politician who proposed requiring Internet providers to record every Web site their customers visit is now backing away from the controversial legislation.

Warner Bros. now adding restrictions to your Netflix DVD queue  —  Giant media company Warner Brothers might be taking further steps to ensure that its updated distribution strategy for newly released DVD movies has the maximum effect — regardless of how petty the company may seem as a result.

Google Earth 6.2: A Seamless Globe That's Ready for Sharing on Google+  —  Google just launched a major update for Google Earth.  The program now offers one seamless image of the globe instead of a patchwork of separate images that made the Earth look a bit like a quilt in earlier versions.

Steam hits iOS and Android for buying, but not playing games  —  Steam Mobile live for iOS and Android  —  Valve has partly fulfilled one of the most common wishes of gamers Thursday by posting Steam Mobile.  Versions for both iOS (App Store) and Android (Market) lets users both keep up with their Steam chats and groups while away.

Apple's universal remote concept hints at future television set  —  Apple has shown interest in building a new, simplified remote control that would automatically control a variety of devices while reducing setup and frustration for the user.  —  The concept was revealed this week …

Debate rages as Spotify, MOG, and Rdio kill / save the music industry  —  For the conscience-laden music consumer, streaming music services present an interesting quandary.  By separating the concept of “legal access to music” from the age-old paradigm of “paying the artist for an entire song or album …

Washington state AG and Facebook target “clickjackers”  —  Dual actions take aim at social media spammers  —  SEATTLE - If you use Facebook, the world's top social networking site, you may have “liked” an Internet scheme without even knowing it - and unwittingly helped spread the scam to your Facebook friends.

Symantec: We Didn't Know in 2006 Source Code Was Stolen  —  Anti-virus giant Symantec says it did not know back in 2006 that source code for its software was stolen when it experienced a breach at that time.  —  The company surprised the public last week when it disclosed that hackers …

Apple, Google, 5 Others To Be Denied Dismissal Of “No Poach” Conspiracy Case  —  7 of the world's most powerful tech companies have been accused of forming an antitrust conspiracy to suppress the compensation of their employees by entering into “no poach” agreements.

HTC to Give Up on Quantity and Try Quality  —  HTC's disappointing fourth-quarter earnings seem to have inspired a sea change at the company — or at least given it cause to reconsider its strength-in-SKU-numbers handset strategy.  —  Rather than compulsively adding to the cluttered cavalcade of Titans …

Forrester: Nearly 50% of businesses now issuing Macs, 27% support the iPad  —  The myth that Macs aren't welcome in the enterprise appears to be finally dying out, according to new research from Forrester.  The company reports that almost 50 percent of businesses in North America and Western Europe now issue Mac computers.